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enjoins upon them. They were to abstain even from the aj^earance of covetousness, or love of money, or luxury : " Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes." — They were to behave like men who had no time to waste on the empiy compliments and conventional courtesies of the world : " Salute no man by the way."
These remarkable worda must doubtless be inter- preted with some qualification. The time came when our Lord Himself, at the end of Hi s ministry, said to the disciples, ''He that hath a purse let him take it, and likewise his scrip." (Luke xxii. 36,) The apostle Paul was not ashamed to use salutations. The apostle Peter expressly commands us to "be courteous." (1 Pet. iii. 8.) But still, after every deduction and quali- 'fication, there remains a deep lesson beneath these words of our Lord, which ought not to be overlopked. They teach us that ministers and teachers of the Gospel should beware of allowing the world to eat up their time and thoughts, and to hinder them in their spiritual work. They teach us that care about money, and excessive attention to what are called " the courtesies of life," are mighty snares in the way of Christ's labourers, and snares into which they must take heed lest they fall.
Let us consider these things. They concern ministers especially, but they concern all Christians more or less. Let us strive to show the men of the world that we have no time for their mode of living. Let us show them that we find life too precious to be spent in perpetual feasting, and visiting, and calling, and the like, as if there were no death, or judgment, or life to come. — ^By all means let ufi be courteous. But let us not make the courtesies of